Exploration of Group Work and Peer Assessment: A Case Study of Culturally Diverse Groups

Dr Jessica Hancock, Dr Ruth Marciniak, Thomas Peschken

GCU London

Rationale for research

Importance of international students to UK HE

Need for cultural competence in group work

Little knowledge of students working within diverse

cultural groups and language barriers (Kratzke and Bertol,

2013)

GCU London – 89% international

Literature underpinning the research Cultural influences: Can be conceptualised in terms of: • Academic cultures • Cultures of communication • Cultures of learning

As a consequence of the above, incorporating group work in a multi-cultural environment can creates both challenges and also benefits (Popov et al., 2012)

Challenges Benefits

Different communication skills

Different behavioural patterns

Intercultural competences

Sharing culturally diverse

knowledge

‘After graduation a large

number of today’s students

will work in international

groups as part of their future

professions. Therefore, the

ability to work effectively in

culturally heterogeneous

groups should be an integral

part of a student’s

competence.’

(Popov et al., 2012)

Experiences of group work - data

Qualitative analysis of reflective writing on group work

28 MSc students

Management, marketing and risk management courses

Bangladesh, China, Germany, India, Italy, Sri Lanka,

Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand,

Tanzania, US, Venezuela, Vietnam

Positive reflections on group work

My exposure of diversity … help me to bright my mind

My communication skills and leadership skills have improved

because I related with people of different ethnicities and

countries

There is strength in numbers and diversity

Listen[ing] to more people’s cultural stories can help me to

widen my horizon and understand more about this world

Common issues

Lack of cohesion - Kimmel & Volet, 2010

Attitude and responsibility

Conflicts - Robbins and Fredendall (2001) - homogeneous

groups tend to be happier, have less conflict

Communication

Leadership

Cultural differences

Practical – “As we all are international student, one of them had visa

problem and another one had to fly back home (family issues)”

Language – “four of my group members were using foreign language outside

of English language in discussion which left me lack of understand what they

were discussing” – also see Popov, 2010

Lack of prior experience – “I did not feel too comfortable with people of

different ethnicity”

Different approaches – “the way oriental people settling the mission were

totally unlike with the European so it triggered many kinds of disputes”

Plagiarism – “members just copy and paste the references as their works”

Possible solutions

We communicated, analyzed and solved the diversity

problem. The team members come from different countries,

we had different views on “teamwork” based on our own

cultural experiences. We shared our individual views, we find

references to analysis and support which views should be

included in the presentation. And finally solved the cultural

diversity problem.

Other data and outcomes

Questionnaire after group work

Peer assessment tool

Modifications to current tool

Better represent student issues and concerns

Survey findings

Questionnaire

Benefits and challenges of team work,

Relevance of peer assessment criteria

Concerns of group work identified from reflective student work

Masters level module with 21 students, 14 completed

responses

Descriptive statistics only at this point due to low volume of data

Survey findings – Benefits and Challenges of team work and cultural diversity

Benefits Benefits of working

in a team

The cultural diversity had a

positive impact on/

contributed to the benefits

(Time) Management skills 9% 4.7 Awareness of other cultures/ ways of working (together) 29% 4.1

Communication skills 18% 4.7

Different ideas 26% 4.4

Enjoyable 3% 5.0

Networking/ making friends/ relationships 6% 5.0

Teamwork/ learning from others 9% 4.7

• Cultural diversity in a group is linked with all benefits identified

Survey findings – Benefits and Challenges of team work and cultural diversity

Challenges Challenges of

working in a team

The cultural diversity had a

negative impact on/ contributed

to the challenges

Work ethic/ attitude towards task 26% 4.0

Too many ideas/ struggle to agree 22% 4.0

Communication issues 19% 4.6

Different ways of working/ thinking 33% 4.1

• Benefits roughly in line with Popov et al 2012

• Challenges go beyond/ more specific than Popov et al 2012

• Generally more benefits (34) were identified than challenges (27)

• Association with cultural diversity: • Cultural diversity perceived to have both a positive and negative impact on team work

• Positive impact on benefits stronger than negative impact on challenges

Survey findings – Peer Assessment Criteria Relevance (5 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree)

0

2

4

6

8

10

5 4 3 2 1

Attendance Ideas

Research Group Process

Supporting others Practical contribution

• School of Service Management/ University of Brighton 15+ years ago

• HEA as best practice example

• All criteria deemed relevant:

• Regular attendance at group meetings

• Contribution of ideas for the task

• Research, analysing & preparing material for the task

• Contribution to the co-operative group process

• Supporting & encouraging group members

• Practical contribution to end product e.g. writing presenting making materials etc.

Survey findings – Peer Assessment

Ranking (1 = top, 6 = bottom) Weighting (Given in %)

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

0

5

10

15

20

25

- Both ranking and weighting identify the same 3 component as being most important to students

- Interestingly the “ideas” part relates to one of the perceived benefits and translates as something

that is valued

Survey findings – Peer Assessment

Criteria Relevance (5 strongly

agree, 1 strongly disagree

Ranking (1

top, 6 bottom)

Weighting

Regular attendance at group meetings

4.5 2.2 18%

Contribution of ideas for the task 4.3 2.5 21%

Research, analysing & preparing material for the task

4.6 2.3 23%

Contribution to the co-operative group process

4.5 2.9 14%

Supporting & encouraging group members

4.4 4.7 12%

Practical contribution to end product e.g. writing presenting making materials etc.

4.4 4.6 13%

Survey findings – Reflective Concerns (5 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree)

0

2

4

6

8

10

5 4 3 2 1

Plagiarism Time together

Leadership Deadlines

Language Conflict

Attitude to task Communication

- General support/ agreement with all concerns identified in student reflective

- Each concern with 64%+ support as relevant

- The only concern that was relatively less important was “time together”

Survey Findings – Reflective Concerns (Opposing choice pairs)

Pla

gia

rism

Tim

e t

ogeth

er

Leaders

hip

Deadlines

Language

Confl

ict

Att

itude t

o T

ask

Com

munic

ati

on

Preference A 36% 29% 36% 71% 57% 43% 57% 43%

Indifferent 29% 29% 43% 14% 36% 43% 29% 21%

Preference B 36% 43% 21% 14% 7% 14% 14% 36%

- No concern with only one interpretation

- Majority of choice pairs had a dominant interpretation (Red)

- Two choice pairs with indifferent option at least as big if not bigger than the dominant

preference (Purple)

- Two choice pairs peaked on both sides i.e. opposing views (Green)

Outcomes

• Intention/ purpose of Peer Assessment Tool Revision • Measure QAA Benchmark:

”effective performance within team environments and the ability to recognise and utilise individuals' contributions in group processes and to negotiate and persuade or influence others; team selection, delegation, development and management”

• Better represent student concerns

• Group Self-Management Tool to tackle challenges and underpin/ support benefits

• Challenges for Peer Assessment Revision • Not to overcomplicate the tool

• Subjectivity/ objectivity of criteria

• Key revisions to be considered in collaboration with students • Adjust weighting either by 1) introducing a

fixed weightings column, 2) allow students to assign weightings or 3) enhance the criteria to balance the weighting

• Enhance criteria to address student concerns/ challenges and to capture/ encourage benefits

• Extended Tool Kit/ training to share best practice for addressing challenges in groups but equally how to get the most benefits out of group work and diversity

Next steps

Further data collection – interviews

Training for colleagues – share tool

Online videos for students